12 Important Factors for Growing Your Company

There’s a lot to think about when growingyourcompany. From hiring to new clients to insurance, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. But that’s why it’s important not to let seemingly little things fall through the cracks.

To figure out what needs to stay on the radar no matter how busy you are, we asked a dozen entrepreneurs the following question:

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“When growing your company, what is one overlooked thing you should keep in mind?”

Here’s what YEC community members had to say:

Company Culture

“With each new addition to your team, the camaraderie and company culture will inevitably change. It is important to not overlook yourcompany culture but instead have a plan to foster and develop the initial spirit as the numbers grow. Your culture is what brought them to the company in the first place, so it is imperative not to lose it!” ~ Kim Kaupe, ZinePak

Knowledge Management

“A small company often captures its working knowledge in the minds of its early employees. As a result, you may struggle to educate new hires, and some people may have a disproportionate amount of power or responsibility simply because of what they know (rather than what they can do). To grow smoothly, be disciplined about documenting your best practices and sharing them with your team.” ~ AJ Shankar, Everlaw, Inc.

Clearly Defined Roles

“It’s imperative to clearly define each person’s role in the company, especially when you start to grow. This includes the founding team and those first hires. Take the time to clearly define roles, responsibility and a chain of command so everyone is on the same page.” ~ Andrew Thomas, SkyBell Video Doorbell

Continued Scalability

“We recently updated a number of our processes and the structures within our company simply because a lot of what we had in place works today, but would not be appropriate or even feasible with four times the number of employees. For instance, we found that how we all share stories about the weekend in a roundtable format would not work when 30 people were at the table.” ~ Beck Bamberger, BAM Communications

Each Small Step

“As entrepreneurs, we like to explore, we’re curious and we always get involved in new projects. This is good. But it’s easy to forget to create processes to establish stability and consistency. You should keep in mind your vision and determine the steps you need to take to get from where you are to where you want to be.” ~ Alfredo Atanacio, Uassist.ME

Cash Flow

“Don’t overlook how much money is coming in, and balance it with the money you are spending to grow. As Warren Buffet says: “Cash or available credit is like oxygen: you don’t notice it 99.9 percent of the time, but when absent, it’s the only thing you notice.”” ~ Kevin Henrikson, Acompli (now Outlook iOS/Android @ Microsoft)

Development of Internal Tools

“When the company is small, a lot of tasks are done manually as it’s not worthwhile to build a custom tool or buy a product to service the need. As the business grows, a lot of processes inside the company have to be assessed and optimized by building internal tools to streamline operations.” ~ Randy Rayess, VenturePact

Consistent Team Quality

“Even if you are generating significant cash flow or have just landed a new investment and want to grow your team, you should never settle. Your team is always as weak as the weakest link. You must always keep the quality of your team as high as possible.” ~ Luke Skurman, Niche.com

Customer Happiness

“As yourcompany grows and you bring on more new business, it’s important to remain steadfast in your focus on existing customer happiness. We monitor this through tracking net promoter score and customer retention. This metric gives us a good indicator of whether the business is scaling appropriately and is likely to see increased total business.” ~ Ryan Wilson, FiveFifty

Core Values

“Maintaining values and culture is crucial to long-term sustainability and growth, and a strong argument can be made that these two areas indirectly impact profitability. Having core values and strong culture gives employees purpose, value and guidance for making key decisions. Continually investing in these areas is key; they will help guide the business through seasons of change. ” ~ Dusty Wunderlich, Bristlecone Holdings

Little Wins

“It’s easy to get sucked into the mentality of looking forward to the next big obstacle, especially when you’re leading a startup. But it’s very important for the morale of yourcompany to stop and celebrate the little wins. Creating some sort of tradition — whether it’s champagne or ringing a gong — will help give your team perspective and prevent burnout in the long run.” ~ Mattan Griffel, One Month

Team Performance Evaluations

“When you’re making money, everyone’s work seems to be good and getting the job done. But sometimes what seems like ‘getting the job done’ is actually a market run that overlooks mistakes. Those same mistakes can come back to haunt you when that market slows unless you have consistently worked with your team to ensure that they are always operating at their best. This can be done through regular performance evaluations.” ~ Rahim Charania, American Fueling SystemsGrowth Photo via Shutterstock

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world's most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

4 Reactions

This list could go on all day, but I really like the comments on culture and core values. These come from the top down and get harder and harder to convey to new employees as the company grows. You need a real plan.

I love how you covered all grounds here. It is really important to look beyond customers and celebrate with the team that is behind it all. Culture is everything as it retains employees and fuels the business.

Great article! I think there are a number of keys to growing your small business but defining your purpose, building a culture of engagement and aligning your core values are paramount. I agree with Aira, your culture is pivotal in attracting the right talent. Having team members that are aligned to your purpose and live out your values every day give you the best chance to deliver a great customer experience and grow your business.

Love the comment on “Little Wins” I agree whole-heartedly with Mattan. As a busy small business owner, it can sometimes tough to slow down and celebrate the small milestones in life.

One last thing I would mention is a comment to “When the company is small, a lot of tasks are done manually as it’s not worthwhile to build a custom tool or buy a product to service the need.”

I am not sure I totally agree. With cloud apps so prevalent, small businesses have so many options from accounting to crm platforms that can help them become more productive. These software tools are in reach of every small business owner and are simpler and more affordable than ever.

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